The global perception of the USA, under the Trump administration, is worse than that of Russia. What do the data about Romania show?
Global opinion of the US has deteriorated for the second year in a row and is now worse than that of Russia, as US President Donald Trump's policies continue to strain NATO, an annual democracy survey released Friday showed.
The Alliance of Democracies Foundation, based in Denmark, which commissioned the survey, said that, after Russia and Israel, the United States was mentioned most frequently in response to the question of which country represents the greatest threat to the world, Reuters and News.ro agencies report.
The survey did not go into details about the criteria used, but the Alliance states that its purpose is to defend and promote democratic values.
“The rapid decline in the perception of the United States around the world is sad, but not shocking,” said Alliance founder, former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
“US foreign policy over the past 18 months has, among other things, called into question the transatlantic relationship, imposed large-scale tariffs and threatened to invade the territory of a NATO ally,” he added.
Trump's tariffs, his repeated threats to control Greenland, the reduction of US aid to Ukraine, as well as the war launched by the US and Israel against Iran and the subsequent rise in oil prices have deeply destabilized transatlantic relations.
Furious that European countries refused to send naval forces to open the Strait of Hormuz to global shipping after the start of the air war against Iran, Trump said in April he was considering pulling out of NATO, further weakening the alliance.
The Democracy Perception Index survey, which ranks the perception of countries on a scale from -100% to +100%, showed that the net perception of the US fell to -16% from +22% two years ago, placing it behind Russia (-11%) and China (+7%). The survey did not provide a reason for the positive sentiment towards China.
Romania, among the countries that receive the lowest marks
The survey firm Nira Data conducted the survey between March 19 and April 21, based on over 94,000 respondents from 98 countries. Perceptions towards countries were measured on a sample of 46,600 respondents from 85 countries.
The report was published before the Democracy Summit in Copenhagen, which will take place on May 12.
Public assessments of democratic performance vary considerably across Europe. The Nordic countries (Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland), along with Switzerland, receive the best marks, all falling into the “Very Positive” category.
Instead, Ukraine, Romania, Russia, France and Serbia receive the lowest marks, all falling into the “Very Negative” category. The regional average is slightly below the neutral level. Romania is at -21, just like Russia, the only worst rated being Ukraine, with -23.
In terms of public trust in the rule of law, the Nordic countries, Switzerland, Kuwait and Egypt score the best in terms of the ability of their courts to make fair and impartial decisions. Lebanon, Romania and Venezuela have the lowest ratings. Romania has a score of -36, the weakest, just like Lebanon.
